I think Microsoft’s acquisition of Groove is an admission that they are seriously playing catch-up to Lotus Notes in groupware functionality. If you can’t beat them, buy their creator. However, this is definitely going to strengthen Microsoft’s position, if for no other reason than Ray Ozzie will now be making decisions on the direction of the entire collaboration portfolio for Microsoft. That can only be a good thing for Microsoft, and it forces IBM/Lotus to up the ante.